Portfolio



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

S. J. H. SMITH, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

PORTFOLIO.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 13,014, dated June 5. 1855.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, SAMUEL J. H. SMITH, ofBoston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented a new and useful Portfolio for Filing Letters or Sheets' ofVarious Kinds; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully describedand represented in the following specification and the accompanyingdrawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure 1, is a side view of the said article. Fig.2, is a transverse section of it. Fig. 3, is a longitudinal section ofit, taken through its clamp bars and their spring bands.

In constructing my invention I employ two bars A, B, composed of wood orother proper material. They are to be laid parallel to one another' andunited at or near each of their two adjacent ends by elastic bandsprings, c, o, which will permit these bars to be moved apart from oneanother and to return toward one another, when the separating force iswithdrawn from them. To each of the bars is to be connected a sheet ofpasteboard or cover C, which may be hinged to the bars. On the oppositesides of the bars there is to be applied or fixed to both bars anelastic or yielding back D, which should be made of a width as great asit may be desirable, for. the clamp bars to be separated withoutimproperly straining their band springs.

In liling letters, or sheets of paper, in

such a portfolio, they are to be placed between the clamp bars when thelatter are moved a sufficient distance apart to receive such sheets orletters, the retractive powers of the spring bands serving to maintainthe sheets or papers in place, while the flexible back will be extendedor undoubled in proportion as the mass of paper liled is increased, theback serving to protect the papers from being injured or forced frombetween the clamp bars.

The back should be made of either a flexible or elastic material.

I do not claim a bill or paper file co1nposed of two straight bars orplates and elastic bands uniting them together at their ends, when suchbars or plates are so arranged that one may be parallel and above theother, but

Combining such with two covers, and a flexible elastic, or extensionback so as to constitute the file portfolio for the retention andpreservation of papers or letters, and protecting the map -or file ofthem on both sides, and t-he back of the same.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my signature this ninth day ofApril A. D. 1855.

SAMUEL J. I-I. SMITH Vitnesses CALEB EDDY, F. I). HALE, Jr.

